Lie bracket from local group commutators ($[X,Y]={\partial }_s{\partial }_t\log (e^{sX}{e}^{tY}{e}^{-sX}{e}^{-tY}){|}_{s=t=0}$)

In a local exponential chart, the mixed second differential of the group commutator defines a bilinear map on the tangent space at the identity. Inversion after swapping the two group elements proves antisymmetry. Differentiating conjugation gives $[X,Y]=\mathrm{ad}(X)Y$; applying naturality of the Lie bracket to the Adjoint representation of a Lie group then proves the Jacobi identity. For a matrix group this recovers $XY-YX$ by expanding through the mixed term.

Use the cross-product Lie algebra convention $X=\widehat{e_1}$, $Y=\widehat{e_2}$, $Z=\widehat{e_3}$, so $[X,Y]=Z$. Put $R_x(t)=\exp (tX)$ and $R_y(t)=\exp (tY)$, using the matrix exponential. The finite group commutator isHere $\epsilon \to 0$ and big O notation refers to any fixed matrix norm. Active rotation matrices act on column vectors from right to left: first rotate about $y$ by $-\epsilon$, then about $x$ by $-\epsilon$, then about $y$ by $+\epsilon$, and finally about $x$ by $+\epsilon$. Swapping $x$ and $y$ replaces the product by its inverse and changes the leading Lie bracket to $-Z$.

Writing $c=\cos \epsilon$ and $s=\sin \epsilon$, direct matrix multiplication givesFor $\epsilon =0.1$ radians, $C_{\epsilon }{e}_1\approx (0.999950208,0.009966462,0.000501230)$, whereas $e_1+{\epsilon }^{2}Z{e}_1=(1,0.01,0)$. Thus the residual is a positive rotation about $z$ to leading order; at finite $\epsilon$ it also has smaller components. The Lie bracket captures the leading effect of the four moves rather than their entire finite motion. See Etingof, Section 7.2, Proposition 7.11.

The left panel projects the actual four arcs onto the $yz$-plane for $\epsilon =0.25$; the start and endpoint are close but distinct. The right panel divides the residual coordinates by ${\epsilon }^2$, making the limit $(\Delta y/{\epsilon }^2,\Delta z/{\epsilon }^2)\to (1,0)$ visible. This is a numerical picture of $[X,Y]=Z$ in the SO(3) Lie algebra.